Over 70% of people report using social media to help make purchasing decisions! Social media marketing is ESSENTIAL. You can’t deny that in the digital world we live in, every successful business has a presence on social media. Building, cultivating, and sustaining a social media pages builds brand awareness, drives sales, encourages loyalty, and provides another avenue for customer service. All of this goodness starts by picking the most suitable digital space for your business!

From Facebook-land to Twitter-verse to the clip-filled TikTok dimension, every social media platform has its own unique capabilities (and drawbacks). The differences between social platforms attract different people, and that means not every forum holds the same potential for marketing and brand presence. Today, we will help guide you in choosing the best social media outlet for your business by asking a few key questions.

Who is your target audience? How old are they? What are they like?

The first step in narrowing down your social media platform choices is understanding where your audience spends most of their digital time. Social media platform usage varies by many factors, such as age, gender, and socio-economic status. To begin, let’s first consider the age of your potential customers. According to a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, you’ll find the majority of your Baby Boomer audience is on Facebook and Youtube, while the up and coming Gen Z might be better reached on TikTok, Instagram, or Snapchat. And if you're seeking the Millennial in the prime of their purchasing years, you’d find them splitting their time between Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and even a bit on TikTok. 

An additional aspect to ponder for your platform efficacy is your future clientele's gender and socio-economic status. Reporting shows that men tend to favor Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn more while women gravitate towards the more visual media such as Instagram, Pinterest, or TikTok. How does “socio-economic status” come into play when choosing social media? Think about the platform LinkedIn. It’s users trend towards urban, college graduates within higher income brackets, while TikTok, because of it’s younger demographic, lends itself to students currently earning less. 

These factors are important to consider when spending not only time but also money on social media marketing, you don’t want your brand’s ads and content to land on deaf ears by being in the wrong social space. If you already have a presence on social media and are wondering if you are in the right place, take a look at your 2021 metrics and see how you did before you launch your 2022 campaigns.

Lights, Camera….Action? Or Nah?

Ok, if you’ve figured out your target audience and you know where they like to do their nightly scrolling, the next step is to consider what kind of content you can and are willing to create for your business. You might be tempted to sign up and start pumping out content BUT it still has to be compelling, engaging and unique to get attention and circulation within the algorithms of that platform. You’ll be wasting your time on Instagram if you can only post Shopify product shots with no captions. There is no use getting on Twitter if you only want to tweet out your message and never engage with others. 

 Think about what you or your team can do and wants to do when it comes to your social media platforms. Does your business lend itself to visual mediums such as Instagram or Pinterest? Can you take compelling photos of your beautiful clothing options, tasty food creations or delightful home decor? Or, is your business service or awareness based and being apart of the global conversation on Twitter or even LinkedIn the most important? Perhaps you're a non-profit wanting to fight against child hunger and not only are you seeking donations/volunteers but you want to share articles, reports and content to keep the conversation going. Maybe you are so passionate about your business that recording videos talking about your product or service is right up your alley and TikTok feels like the perfect place to showcase all that your business has to offer! 

Each platform specializes in a certain creative medium, Facebook is a good place for videos, images and even quick text posts, though videos always out preform. TikTok is the hottest place for short-form videos and clips while Instagram's reels and stories is a good contender in this arena. LinkedIn is a prime spot for long-form articles and educational pieces of content about your business. This process of really considering what type of content works best for you and your business brings us to our final consideration… time!

Do you have the time? How much time? 

Is your business just beginning to bloom? Then you’ve got the time! This is the opportunity to take as many photos and videos as you can, use some now and save the rest for when time is more scarce. Utilize all the momentum and creative juices you have at the moment to stock up for the future! Write down ideas even if they can’t be used for months! Writing copy, editing photos and videos, researching related content and engaging with followers all of it takes time, but you can do it! Setting aside just an hour a day or few hours a week can do wonders in keeping your digital brand image looking fresh and flawless! As you are starting out, we may suggest some light reading to help get your feet wet, “How to Build a Social Media Foundation in 4 Easy Steps.”

Perhaps you’ve read this far and you are completely overwhelmed and you know for a fact that “ain’t nobody (on your team) got time for that!” Take a deep breath because we got you. This is where investing a portion of your budget into hiring professionals can ensure that you are a) choosing the right platform(s), b) creating the most engaging content for that platform and c) saving valuable time and energy while not sacrificing the vital aspect of social media messaging for your business. Now even when you hire outside help, there will always be work to be done internally; photos, videos and assets need to be organic, natural and genuine. As a business owner you should always keep a finger on the pulse of your social media presence and stay as involved as possible.

Shoot us a DM or give us a call if you have any questions or want to talk shop about all things social! The Betsy Babes are on your side!